I Could Murder Carson!
by Countess of Cobert
Summary: SERIES 6 SPOILERS! One shot based on Cora's 'Come to bed' in 6.01. Just a load of fluff following what could have happened after they left the kitchen. Now extended, likely to be a COLLECTION OF SERIES 6 DRABBLES. Hope you enjoy them all.
1. I Could Murder Carson!

AN: THIS CONTAINS SPOLILERS FOR SERIES 6, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW, DON'T READ!

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She looked beautiful, oh so beautiful, her hair down around her shoulders, his hands having put it there. He twirls the curls around his fingers, the dark chocolate ringlets he'd first unwound himself on that very first night, two days before their wedding. He's about to loop all the curls together into her traditional braid when she swivels on the chair, her face tilted in his direction.

He'd been gazing at her for far too long, it was time she took some action, she'd seen the look before, he'd been miles away thinking about something. She'd dragged him up from downstairs, only actually touching him once they had passed swiftly from the servants abode. But he'd followed her diligently, chortling as she giggled. He'd even agreed to them not interrupting Baxter and Bates and helping each other get changed. Not that they'd really changed, he stood in his undergarments and under shirt; she her thin chemise.

"What's the matter?" She stands from the stool, wandering to the bed still feeling his gaze hot on her back. He seems to stand redundant at the dresser, twisting her hair brush between his palms.

"Don't you want me to braid your hair?" He didn't really want it braided but she had a habit of complaining when it was not tied, waking up in the morning and immediately ringing the bell 'because I need extra time with Baxter to get all the knots out.' He always laughed and she always hit him with the pillow.

"Why are you laughing?" Her eyebrows are raised, a twinkle in her eyes, he hadn't realised he'd made a sound.

"I was thinking about how annoyed you'll be about all the knots in the morning." She rolls her eyes and turns down his side of the bed, it was true all the tugging Baxter would have to do was painful, but it was all worth it. Robert adored her with her hair down, not that he didn't adore her anyway.

"I'm going to repeat what Carson interrupted downstairs, come to bed." He can't help but smirk, she really was very good at being seductive. He slips into the bed by her side, feeling the warmth of her body meeting his immediately, her toes scratching against his shin. Her lips graze gently at his neck, her fingers already stretching beneath the buttons on his shirt. It was so lovely, to lie back with her like this, and feel totally content.

"I still can't get over Mrs Hughes and Carson." Cora rolls her eyes, her hand immediately stilling on his chest, he always seemed to manage to kill a moment. Men seemed to be in the habit of it tonight, first Carson now Robert.

"Why ever not?"

"Well, I," he knows his mouth opens and closes, his hand reaching into his hair the moment her face lifts from the crook of his neck to find his gaze. "It's just, I mean, don't you think it's going to be a little awkward? Not just for us, but them, I mean, can you honestly see Carson and Mrs Hughes, well...I mean, they're not the youngest people and Carson is so, well, awkward-" He stops because she's laughing, her gentle chuckles reverberating on his neck.

"Everyone has a first time Robert. We had a first time."

"I know, but we, well-"

"They love each other, that's all that matters. I should hope you know that." She knew what his problem was, it was their age, she wasn't about to remind him that the soon to be Carson's weren't actually much older than them. She know it unnerved him, more perhaps because he was jealous that they were starting out on something new, while he was stuck with what he'd always had. "Are you jealous of him?"

"Carson?" His head spins to look at her as she shifts further from his body to increase her view of him.

"Yes, that he's just embarking on marriage and that you're, well-" She gestures at her body as she pauses. Not that she really had to, Robert had already made the jump. Had already followed her thoughts.

"You're all I want Cora. All I need. I'm not jealous of Carson. It's for him to be jealous of me. Of the man who married young and had a lovely family. Who married a woman he really admired so early in his life. I have a lot to be thankful for and most of it, no, at least ninety-five percent of it is curled right next to me." She feels the arm reaching under her, tugging her nearer at the same time she notes the first tear falling to her cheek. He had a knack sometimes of catching her of guard, tonight was one of those nights.

As he tilts his lips gently to hers he's pleased to find a wetness lingering on her cheeks, a dampness that meant more to him than the feel of her lips beneath his own. The fact he could still make her cry, still surprise her. He allows her a chance to breath, her cheeks seemingly streaking with more tears, and lowers his mouth to the dip of her shoulder as he shuffles her chemise to her waist before releasing it over her head. Her fingers dance in his hair for a while, then still, he glances up to find her deeply engrossed in watching him kiss her skin.

"If you hadn't just been so romantic I would accuse you of trying to get me back in my box." She giggles a little as his brow furrows like a school boy sent to the headmaster for a scolding he doesn't understand. He rearranges himself beside her, at which she takes the opportunity to get him to a similar state of undress as herself; teasing her fingers over his chest, she removes his shirt. She knew he was waiting for an answer to his confused look. "Over the hospital and this being a tiresome Spring and Summer for you if I don't give up."

"I just don't want to be stuck between choosing my wife or my mother." He had only just gained Cora back, truly, since the Bricker incident and he wasn't prepared to lose her again not with everything that was going on with Downton, the changes that were obviously lurking just around the corner.

"Who says you have to choose? I would have thought the choice, if indeed there is one, was fairly self explanatory." Her wry grin makes him tug her closer, if that was possible, his lips grazing her temple. It was true, there wasn't really a choice, Cora was his wife, companion, best friend, and well, she was currently lying beside him with nothing on, she trusted him like no other person in his life had ever trusted him. But more importantly then that she trusted him with the most important things, her whole life, her body. On the other hand, his mother was such a battle axe, not that Cora would say that should sway his vote at all.

"It's just mother will make me feel so bad about the whole thing and-"

"I have the ability to banish you to the dressing room." She has no doubt he has rolled his eyes, but she wasn't about to look up and see. He was childish, he always was when it came to these kind of things, he still couldn't quite break away from his mother and it very much unnerved her. She dearly hoped her siding with Isobel and trying to bring the hospital forward would be successful, she had a lifetime of Violet trumping things over her. But if she didn't manage that she secretly hoped her involvement would make Robert realise it was time to make it clear where his loyalties lay. "How about we don't fuss about this anymore, and return our thoughts to the wonderful evening we've had so far."

Cora was right of course, there was no point in dwelling over the hospital saga, Cora was going to get involved but hopefully, now that he had raised his concerns about it, she might try her best making sure they didn't forget each other, that they didn't let his mother, of all people, get between them.

"Um, and talking of people getting between us, Carson very much interrupted me earlier." She glances up at him somewhat astonished. He shifts her weight so he can lie on his side, keeping her eyes level with his own. "I was going to announce my desire to go to bed at the exact moment you chose, but then, well... I contemplated feeding you that food as well, but I don't doubt some pair of eyes we couldn't see would have been watching us." He looks away from her, weary of her reaction only to hear her burst into a laugh, falling down onto the pillow beside him.

"I could murder Carson! I was embarrassed enough that he probably heard exactly what I'd said, but to think he stopped you from being romantic, which is a rare occurrence at best, I could give him a piece of my mind!" He leans over her, seemingly bemused by her laughter and she eyes him, her hand tracing up his chest from his stomach to the ridge between his collarbones. She rubs at his skin twisting the tiffs of hair on his body between her fingers, listening to the change of his breathing as she does so.

"Cora?" She doesn't take the warning, she doesn't want to and he doesn't really want her to stop her little game.

"Yes?" She runs her tongue gently over her lower lip, shifting her knee to sit between his legs, his body now straddling her. Her hands drift to the place on the back of his neck, the place he so enjoyed her massaging. She wriggles her body beneath him again, he chuckles against her skin.

"You don't need to try Cora, you know that don't you? I want you without you having to try. I love you." He doesn't say the words often, hardly ever in fact, but he didn't need to because Cora knew, they both knew.

She can't quite believe it, he really was becoming quite a changed man. Not only, since Tom had left had he embraced the idea of change, and Mary being at the helm but now he seemed to be splattering their time together with touches, kisses, promises and vows she was lucky she heard once a year.

"Me too darling. Me too." Her lips are right there, so he seals her words, her promise with his own. Finally allowing them to begin what she had started with three simple words and that Carson has interrupted; it was indeed time to go to bed, with Cora. His adorable Cora.


	2. I love you, very, very much

AN: So this is just what I'd like to see at the beginning of 6.06. Naturally contains spoilers! I hope you enjoy.

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He was back. He was lying in her bed. Awake. Watching her. His hand squeezing hers. There was no blood, just a line of stitches on his stomach.

She rolls onto her own stomach to face him, her hands sliding beneath her pillow to protect her from the chill.

"How did you sleep?"

"Fine. It's always fine when you're here."

"And nothing hurts? No pains, no aches?"

"Cora. I'm fine." It doesn't make her relax though. His morality, their morality was suddenly flashing before her eyes. The warm blood hitting her neck, staining her dress, trickling gently down her arm- it had been a week ago, but she knew she'd still remember it perfectly in years to come. The smell of dry blood that had tinged the air of the dining room for the last week, no amount of flowers pushing the taste from her mouth. But she'd stayed strong, stomached it, just as she was going to now. "I'm more pleased than ever Tom is back. I think perhaps it's time the house was less of my 'fourth child' and Mary and Tom's second."

She didn't want to say she was glad to hear it. But she was. She truly was. The house had always come first. There had been times when he'd forget it, think of himself for once. But it was rare, Downton and his family had filled his every thought for years. He had never been a self obsessed man.

"I came very close to giving my life to the estate. And I fear looking back, that sometimes I may have given too much of my time. That I didn't share it equally where it was deserved." She can hear him tearing up beside her and she shuffles across, leaning herself so gently by his side. Letting the length of her body lie beside the length of his. Her hand touches the skin by the collar of his pyjama top, the pulse of his blood throbbing beneath her fingers. She resists the urge to count it for ten seconds and work out his heart rate.

"Darling. You can't go back now. And many, so many are very thankful for everything you've done."

"No. I can't go back. But I can alter the future. Our future. I think we should travel some more, when Clarkson gives me the all clear. Just a couple of months, the two of us." He never used to take her by surprise. But he was at the moment.

"Robert-"

"We had so much fun. Egypt, Italy, France. I want that again. In one second Cora, my life flashed before me. It wasn't the house that came rushing to my aid, to be my support as I fell. It was you. I meant what i said: I do love you, very, very much." It was all very endearing but she secretly dreaded the thought of it coming back, of her being alone in a foreign place and him being ill.

"But surely-"

"There's been too many 'buts,' I'm determined. We'll plan it for Spring next year. That gives me plenty of time to sort my diet and live without drink." She chuckles at that, her finger threading neatly through his hair as she shifts to rest her head on his chest. "I've passed you over too often for something I deemed more important Cora. And I wouldn't have any of it without you."

"You're becoming amazingly sentimental." He chuckles cheerfully into her hair at that.

"I had the best teacher." A silence passes between them, her fingers rubbing at his chest, his smoothing her hair.

"You did scare me." She'd felt him twitch as her fingers had traced the scar. It had reminded her of what this was all about, the table she'd set up beside the bed with the games, her dressing table that had become her desk overnight; letters arranged into hers and his. So she could sit with him and write both: he hadn't been back from the hospital but she'd prepared it all. The terror lurking in her mind that every moment could be the last.

"You didn't look scared."

"No, well, your mother was a formidable teacher. But I felt it. There was terror, fear and guilt at having not foreseen the incident mingling in equal measure. It was love that conquered though, in half a second I knew I just had to be calm; for Mama, the girls and for you. I knew you'd want to see me calm, being the support that you needed. The strength." She pauses, thinking she might continue once she's caught her breath but she can't. Her stomach shakes, her breath rattles between her teeth. She turns her face against him-he can't see her cry. Not now. He might not see the tears but she knows he's felt them, he's recognised the signs. His hand comes up from his far side, clasping the fingers on his chest.

"Clarkson said you stayed in the hospital overnight."

"Of course." The dark eerie corridors penetrate her mind for a second and she squeezes her eyes more tightly shut.

"Did you sleep at all?"

"No." The click of the nurses heels echoes in her mind. The opening and shutting of doors, each refusing her sleep on the creaky chair. Each a reminder that the click could be Robert's life over; his operation finished; news for her. Her eyes had barely closed, let alone in sleep.

"I think. When I'm free of this bed. I would like to spend some days in the summer house. A treat for you. A treat for my brave wife." She rolls her eyes against his shirt.

"Let's focus on getting you rested."

"I am Cora. Don't you see, by setting up a line of events I'm desperate to see through I'm more likely to behave myself."

"Still, after a near fatal incident you're all boy." She chuckles to herself.

"We had some good times in that summer house. That was the first place we went after I finally realised I loved you." Cora blushes as her memories come to mind.

"Quite. But you are far too fragile for anything like that. And I am far too old!" The irony of her statement was known to them both. The weeks after Bricker flash through her mind. Late nights, lazy mornings. Even in the months after the first bout of his ulcer at Brancaster, when he'd been on no alcohol and white fish, they'd hardly been calm.

"But you will contemplate it?"

"The summer house, yes. But not the other things. Nothing that risks your health." He doesn't seem to disagree, his fingers tracing the contours of her hand. She eases back a little, conscious of her weight against him.

"Don't move. You're not hurting me."

"If you're sure."

"Cora, I'm sure. I've been sure about everything to do with you for years. Three and a half decades to be precise." She shifts gently to her side, resting her face firmly in the crook of his neck. Her lips graze the stubble on his chin- she'd plainly refused for Bates to shave it last night, instead she was planning on it herself this morning. Robert had never understood her obsession of his unshaven look, he'd been brought up to be so clean and proper that he failed to see how a woman could enjoy how it looked. The truth was she liked him more relaxed, more hers. Only Bates had ever seen him in this unkept manner and she liked the thought she knew something unique. After all, she was the only woman who enjoyed the way it scratches over her forehead when she rests her head on his neck. It was unsettling to think that this had almost been taken from them. Such a small thing but it would have been taken nonetheless.

"I've been sure of you for that long too. It's strange to think that we've been together for well over half our lives."

"Strange is one word. Marvellous and exciting would be the ones I'd use." She chuckles, pressing her lips to his neck again.

"I would use those words too."

"I know you would. Who wouldn't married to me?" She'd tickle him in any other situation but she couldn't hurt him today, so she just rolls her eyes a reluctant blush flourishing on her cheeks for a second.

"You are very lovely to be married to, I will concede."

"Apart from when you're covered in my blood." His voice had suddenly gone cold. And her eyes close slowly and then reopen: the metallic smell of the hospital simmering beneath them.

"I don't know...after all, I have and do, love you, very, very much." It was all that had to be said really. His lips press to the side of her face and she releases the tension in her muscles and the hurt throbbing in her head for the first time since that rather red dinner. She relaxes perfectly beside him. She always had been relaxed there. Always in love.


	3. Sex Appeal

AN: This one has been sitting on my phone for a while. SERIES 6 SPOLILERS. My take on what happened after that 'sex appeal' comment. Just a bit of fun, enjoy!

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She couldn't quite believe he'd just said that, and as he plods to the bed she can't believe she's still thinking about it. She slips beneath the covers gently, not wanting to jostle him, he still complained sometimes of the pain in his abdomen.

"You're blushing?" His remark pulls her from her thoughts and she looks at the sheet she was twiddling between her fingers. He has laid down beside her, leaving his book redundant on the bedside table.

"I've got two questions." He stares at her blankly and she takes the opportunity to study his face, the darkness around his eyes had faded and his cheeks were less pink, he looked healthier than he had. "Where on earth did you get the phrase 'sex appeal'?" He grins at her and she feels briefly uncomfortable but when a redness covers his own cheeks she can't help but giggle as he chuckles beside her.

"I don't really know. I was trying to find an accurate way of working out what Mary sees in Henry."

"But you said that I would say it was sex appeal that she saw. So, what makes you think I find him that attractive, or I think Mary likes him in that way?"

"Well," he moves closer, gently turning on his side so he can hold her waist. "In your case, I would say you find him attractive in that way because he's so like I used to be." She raises her eyebrows and snorts.

"You must be joking. He's nothing like you." She finds him grinning beside her and she can't help but shake her head, he always had been a tease. Even if not many people knew it.

"It's the daring nature of what he does, the thrill and adrenaline. Isn't that what attracts a woman?" Cora thinks for a second on that, her thoughts returning to ballrooms and gardens from years ago.

"It might be what attracts Mary. But I don't think it would attract me if I was young."

"No?"

"No. I prefer the traditional type. Who doesn't have two left feet, and can therefore steer me about a dance floor without any mishaps which is tricky, as you know." He chuckles beside her, pulling her closer, and easing his other arm beneath her. "I like feeling safe with a man, knowing he's coming home to see me and that I can enjoy the things he enjoys. Mary can't enjoy motor racing. And as for 'sex appeal' I'm quite content with dark hair, usually tousled about, some strong arms to cuddle me; a cheeky smile; a sense of humour and some beautiful kisses from time to time." She studies his shirt feeling embarrassed, they knew, rather then told each other of their love and the things they each found appealing. It was strange she'd come so very close to losing him and that she thinks has made her reassess what she likes so much, why she'd fallen so helplessly in love all those years ago. It had made her realise it was time to tell him, so he knew, just in case. "In truth it's not so much about the sex, but having a friend, a companion that you know you're coming home to who'll hold you when you cry and laugh with you when you're happy. The fact he's attractive is just a bonus." Her fingers twist over the buttons on his shirt and then trace the soft stripes on the fabric that aren't visible from a distance. She feels his heart hammering beneath his shirt and for the first time in some time, it sounds strong to her. It feels like it's going to stay. He kisses the top of her head gently.

"You're perfectly right of course. But I still think all those years ago my sex appeal must have had something to do with it. I don't have much else going for me after all." She rolls her eyes, hearing the grin that was stretched wide across his face.

"When I was an innocent virgin who quite frankly was terrified of the very idea of sex, or finding men attractive. I wasn't allowed to, or so mother said. I hardly think sex appeal ever occurred to me."

"But nature has a way of making it obvious when you're attracted to someone."

"You're not making sense anymore. Perhaps, perhaps the fact I found you excessively attractive was part of why I eventually married you. But I don't think any thoughts of you naked crossed my mind until after the first time. Then, I admit there was perhaps an element of sex appeal." She knows she's blushed bright red when he cuddles her still closer and massages her stomach, his lips tickling at her ear.

"I didn't know you used to dream of me naked." She rolls her eyes but she can't deny it, the first few months had always felt lacking. She had always been left wanting more, she'd thought her dreams were wrong but in hindsight she realised it had just been natural. "From my point of view though, sex appeal was mingled throughout along with how funny you were, and of course my need for your cash." She huddles beneath his chin, gently shaking her head at how honest he was being. "You were, and still are, awfully attractive. But you're right, I value lots of other things about you far more. How strong you are, that you're the mother of my girls. The fact you're my best friend. And quite frankly the only person I think I've ever cried in front of is you, I trust you Cora, very, very much." She knew he was thinking about how close they'd come to the end. How close he'd come and it was endearing to think that they could still discuss these things, still laugh together despite the pain, mental and in his case physical, that they had both endured. "What I want to know is whether whatever you saw in me soon after we married is still present, in some form, now?"

She almost refuses to answer and pretend she's asleep, but he seems to realise she might try that and tickles his fingers over her waist. She squeals and rolls onto her back, his face towering over her. He leans down and kisses her lips soundly when she still makes no reply. It had been weeks, months in fact since they'd been anywhere close to intimate and the shiver of pleasure that runs down her spine is quite impossible to resist. She registers her own murmur of satisfaction as he parts her lips still further.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she senses the dilemma she's in, and the pain that will register with Robert just before it does. She parts her mouth from his and cups his cheek.

"Robert, we can't. Not until you're much better."

"You haven't answered the question yet." She glances down to his hand that rests on her stomach, smoothing the fabric. She links her own fingers with his and likes it when he runs his thumb gently over the rings that bind her to him.

"I still do find you very appealing, yes." He grins like a child, and she shakes her head. She doesn't let go of his hand as she rearranges her position beside him, his face contorting as he lies flat again. She rests her head against his shoulder as he smooths his fingers repeatedly over her hand. He flicks the switch and plunges them into darkness.


End file.
